1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the field of international dialing services and, more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for automatically providing a called party with audio prompts in a language or dialect that has been selected by the calling party for the called party or is generally spoken in the called party's geographic location.
2. Description of Related Arts
With automatic international services as currently offered by AT&T, when a calling party places an international phone call, a called party will receive audio prompts or announcements in a language that is a default language chosen by the toll carrier (AT&T). Currently, the default language is English. Alternatively, the calling party may select one language, in place of the default language, from a selection of available languages, for example, Spanish, which may be the native language of the caller or called party or both. (It is well known that Spanish is perhaps the most spoken language derivative of the Latin or Roman-based languages and is a popular alternative language of choice in the United States.)
A problem with the present system is that the called party may not be able to understand the language of the prompts/announcements because it may not be the language spoken in the calling party's geographic location or be the language of the called party and, therefore, the called party may not understand the meaning of the audio prompts from an operator or announcement system. For example, consider a son living in the United States who speaks both English and French. If the son desires to call his mother who lives in Paris and only speaks French, then the mother will not understand any of the audio prompts because the prompts may be provided in English from the toll carrier based in the United States, unless the son has specifically selected French as the son's only alternative choice to the default English.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,809 issued to Mayer et al. relates to messages produced by a telecommunications network that give the calling party information about the called party's geographic location. In the detailed description, Mayer illustrates a system for informing a calling party, who has placed an international call, about various information specifically related to the called party's geographic location. Mayer provides that during the time required for processing an input international telephone number- including the country and city codes, the calling party will be provided with information such as the time of day, date, news, and weather specifically related to the called party's geographic location.
Mayer et al., however, does not provide any new or novel service designed for the benefit of the called party. Rather, Mayer is predicated on improving services for the calling party by occupying the delay time with useful and entertaining information geared toward the calling party.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,506,894 issued to Billings et al. relates to a system for identifying, forwarding, and delivering to the called party information regarding the originating country of a toll-free international call. Billings describes a system that would allow an international toll-free subscriber, the called party, to receive background information about the calling party's country. For example, Billings would enable the called party to offer personalized services based upon the country or location of the calling party by connecting the calling party to specialized attendants fluent in the calling party's native language and familiar with the calling party's currency. In addition, Billings describes a system that can map the calling party's country code and display the calling party's country to the called party. In the case of data calls, Billings allows the calling party to be directed to a special processor that has the capability of recognizing special characters such as Korean, Cyrillic, and Hebrew letters.
While Billings relates an invention that a called party can subscribe to, the patent does not provide any special services to aid the called party in understanding audio prompts, messages or announcements that may be provided in languages foreign to the called party. Rather, Billings assists the calling party with language difficulties but fails to provide any remedies for the language barriers experienced by the called party. Thus, Billings, like Mayer, is primarily designed to aid and improve the calling party's ability to communicate during international calls. Also, the costs involved in employing specialized attendants, as described by Billings, would be prohibitive.
Consequently, it is an object of this invention to increase the ease of placing international phone calls by enabling the calling party to provide prompts for called parties in the language that is spoken in the called party's geographical location or in a plurality of foreign languages selected by the calling party for the called parties that the calling party frequently calls.